Personally
I have not had a lot of experience as a leader within the work environment,
although yes I have moments when I have taken the lead, I have never been in a
position of lead. Looking ahead I would eventually like to be a manager of some
type within my current organization Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Worldwide because I feel like they are already on the verge of polyarchy.
However advanced we may be currently there is still traditional mentalities
throughout that need to be updated and not changed. What I mean by this is
traditional leadership is here to stay, at least for a little while, so as a
future leader I need to embrace it and try to start a transformation one person
at a time. By embracing it I am understanding the purposes of hierarchy systems
and why they have been in place for so long; even dating back to the monarchy
in England.
People
have always seen order as security. It is appears to me that people typically
feel more comfortable knowing others are responsible and will take the fall
should they fail. A hierarchy system also gives people the opportunity to
critique from afar and without suffering any backlashes. In today’s world
technology is taking us beyond any foreseen futures of the traditional method approaches
because technology is becoming readily available to everyone on Earth. With the
globalization of networking, teams are now the best way to obtain success
because they give organizations diversity, commitment, shared sense, common
goals and support in order to accomplish difficult tasks.
As a
leader my plan is to internalize this class’s lessons on strategy as well as
the lessons learned throughout the program and then become a leader I know
best, me. Getting to know who I am individually first can best develop me as a
leader; getting to know what I stand for, what I want to accomplish, what
values I hold to be true, what my morals are, why I have my goals, what I am
willing to do to accomplish them, as well as what I will do if I fail. Next I
will need to associate myself within the organization and identify what role I
will play in the overall picture. I will need to get to know my employees and
ask them what they want to change, what they want to keep, what they worry
about most, what they want from their leader and anything else that can present
an obstacle in the future.
As the leader
I will begin to align the goals and create a shared vision for the future. The
vision is just an idea so until its put into action it will remain just an
idea. Developing a strategy that can benefit employees at all levels will help
get the ball rolling and the solicitation of continuous feedback will keep it
rolling as the there will be many adjustments made along the way. As the leader
I will create a positive environment by keeping it up beat and happy. In order
to do this I will need to keep an open door policy for employees to be able to
come in and express their thoughts and concerns allowing me time to assess the
situation and create deeper relations with all employees. Communication will
also be opened up with the door being open as many people when faced with a
challenges will feel comfortable bringing the issue to the source so that they
can obtain more training, more resources or just express the challenge keeping
the me in the lop so I can take the appropriate action to resolve it. This will
break any charades that may have existed.
As a
leader I will need to foster creativity and innovation through team building
activities or fun ways to express new ideas. For example Google has an entire
room where their employees can brainstorm in a fun interactive way together
building team skills and allowing free thoughts to flow off one another.
Fostering creativity innovation and critical thinking skills is just one of the
responsibilities of a leader.
This
program has taught me that the leader needs to coach employees through the
different changes the organization encounters, and they need to build employees
skills sets so they are adaptive and quick to respond to the change. They are
compassionate and objective and they keep an open mind to all situations they
encounter. They can work in complex environments with diverse people and have a
global awareness of what’s going on around them. The leader educates employees
and lets go of responsibilities so that the employees have the chance to become
more proficient. Employees grow on their own while the leader is coaching them
along the way.
The
leader’s strategy is to go in knowing whom they are and what their weakness and
strengths are and then build a team that can accommodate these characteristics
adding to the overall equations making it complete. Leaders create a team where
everyone is a leader and everyone is a follower supporting one another through
the pit falls and successes. Overall there is no specific way to lead except
the way in which you lead best is the overall messages I have obtained in the
past 9 weeks.
The best
way to lead is to do so using what you see others doing successfully while
aligning the strategy with ways you could make it possible. Be a good person,
do on to others as you would want them to do to you, do not judge any one until
you walk a mile in their shoes and understand the dilemmas they are facing day-to-
day and then try to make their lives better through education, training,
incentives, benefits, resources to do their job better. Overall use your time
as a leader to make someone else better and then learn to follow them along the
way, and this is the way I hope to lead down the road ahead.
Obolensky,
N. (2010). Complex adaptive leadership. (1st edition.). London, UK:
Gower/Ashgate
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